Mendel Beilis -- The Medical Questions

This is the summary of the 21^st day of the Mendel Beilis trial, which occurred on 15 October, 1913 on the Julian calendar, 28 October, 1913 on the Gregorian calendar.

This day occupies pages 170 through 173 of Volume II of the transcript.

See the translation of the transcript for day 21.

 

 

This day’s activities are very brief.  The questions for the forensic medical experts to answer are presented to them, along with the specimens and photos of Andrey’s corpse.  They then go aside for a private conference, which was anticipated to end that evening.  It didn’t end when the court thought it would but continued late into the night. 

There’s a reason for that.  Supposedly Tufanov was present at one autopsy, and he alone.  His partner in that autopsy had died and a Dr. Kosorotov was brought in to speak for the prosecution side.  I don’t know who knew this, besides Tufanov, but Kosorotov was also present at the second autopsy, which will come up on day 24, if I remember correctly.

At any rate, Drs. Pavlov and Kadyan have not seen the photos and specimens before and the only time they have is the rest of this day to develop their opinions about them.

It should be noted that all the forensic-medical experts and psychiatric-psychological experts refused to have even their expenses paid, except for Kosorotov.  He received 4,000 rubles from the government for testifying, and the archives contain his two receipts each for half of the sum.  Professor Bekhterev suggested a contribution to a psychiatric institute but that was not for himself.

To "What Does It Prove?"

Judge:  Fyodor Boldyrev

Prosecution:

            Criminal Prosecutor, Oscar Vipper

            Civil Prosecutor Georgy Zamyslovsky

            Private Civil Prosecutor Aleksey Shmakov

Defense:

            Oscar Gruzenberg

Nikolay Karabchevsky

Dmitry Grigorevich-Barsky

Alexandr Zarudny

Vasily Maklakov

 

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